Category Archives: Coloredcoin

Mastercoin is an open source Ecoin being developed by the Bitcoin community. Mastercoin is not your typical new ecoin. It is different than Litecoin, Infintecoin etc. It does not have its own blockchain. Instead it leverages the existing Bitcoin block chain and adds new services on top of Bitcoin. Mastercoin is still very much in the initial development stage. Once fully implemented, Mastercoins will allow for extremely small transactions at no or little transaction costs, allow user to create their own coins, and create a tools for refunds and cancellations.

Mastercoin allows for extremely small transactions

Right now, Bitcoin transaction costs $.10 at a $1000 Bitcoin value. This makes small purchases almost impossible with Bitcoins. Mastercoin is designed to piggyback on the Bitcoin blockchain and allow small transaction to process for free or a very small fee.

Mastercoin is a long tail Ecoin platform

The Mastercoin software will allow anyone – neighborhoods, business, charities, schools etc. to create their own ecoins that use the Bitcoin protocol and are tied to Bitcoin value. The software implementing Mastercoins will contain simple tools which will allow anyone to design and release their own currency with their own rules (without doing software development). Mastercoin could do for currency, what WordPress did for websites.

Mastercoin has a special features to secure your Ecoins.

Mastercoin has a special feature referred to as the savings/guardian model. This is basically a saving wallet and a guardian key. If your Mastercoin wallet gets hacked, or the key to your guardian address gets lost or destroyed, the coins can still be recovered. Right now, if your Bitcoin wallet gets hacked or if you lose access to the wallet, your Bitcoins are lost. Mastercoin allows for reversible transactions. Transfers can be reversed for one year. One scenario where this could become valuable is for estate planning. You simply give your heir(s) a paper copy to the private key of your savings address, but you keep the guardian address key to yourself. If you die, your heirs can transfer the funds out of your savings (they will have to wait for the reversibility period to pass), but they can’t steal from you while you are alive since you are the only one with the key to the guardian address and can reverse their transaction if they try.

Mastercoin has an extremely active community which has pointed out and corrected flaws in the currency. Mastercoin, Coloredcoin and Bitshares recently formed a industry foundation to advocate for the continued free operation of Ecoin protocols. Mastercoin has a current market cap of about $50,000,000 and is currently only available through private transactions. For additional information about acquiring Mastercoins submit your email below.